Snack foods are one of the most-innovative food categories, with countless new stock-keeping units (SKUs) introduced each year. As food manufacturers face stricter controls related to the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), questions loom as to whether their innovation will be diminished.
Early in my career, I had a product development role with a food manufacturing company. My aim with each project was to make the final product as easy to manufacture as possible. This meant I focused on using only the company’s most-prevalent ingredients, which were easy to obtain, had good stock rotation and were procured with volume discounts. Needless to say, I never quite created the “wow” factor that brought in key accounts. I now think about how FSMA may create additional hurdles to creativity.